Surfing, as a sport, has become extremely popular and has attracted enthusiasts from all over the world. Particularly prized by expert surfers are the waves classified as plunging, “barreling”, “tubing” or “the pipeline,” which are waves that move with sufficient velocity and height so that, when they encounter an upwardly sloped bottom of a certain configuration, they curl forward over the advancing base of the wave to form a tunnel or barrel shape, inside the mouth of which an expert surfer can maneuver and move laterally across, while seeking to keep pace with the forward movement of the developing wave, without being caught in the collapsing portion thereof.
The formation of ideal waves under natural conditions requires a comparatively rare combination of factors, including wind of a certain constancy of velocity and direction, and waves of a certain velocity, direction and height, approaching a shoreline having a certain bottom slope and configuration, etc. The problem, however, is that very few locations in the world have such favorable conditions and characteristics. Even areas where favorable land and water conditions exist, the most favorable surfing conditions typically occur only during certain times of the year, and only during ideal weather conditions, and therefore, surfing has eluded all but the most dedicated enthusiasts who can afford to travel thousands of miles to reach destinations where ideal surfing conditions exist, at times when ideal weather conditions also exist.
One partial solution was developed by the applicants several years ago in the form of a stationary sheet wave water ride known as the Flow-Rider® and FlowBarrel®. Flow Riders are essentially stationary sheet wave water rides comprising a stationary ride surface that simulates the shape of a wave, and upon which a sheet flow of water under pressure can be propelled, to form a wave shape similar to those that exist in nature, such as a tunnel wave. These water rides have become popular in recent years and have been installed at many locations throughout the world, including at various water theme parks, on cruise ships, etc., and enable even the most inexperienced surfer an opportunity to ride a virtual perfect wave, so that they no longer have to travel thousands of miles to experience the thrill of surfing.
Notwithstanding the advantages of these wave generating devices, a potential drawback is that these water rides don't necessarily create actual waves upon which real surfboards can be used. Rather, they create a wave shape created by a supercritical stream of water flowing over a resilient ride surface shaped to mimic a wave on which a special board can be used that takes advantage of ground effects resulting from the proximate ride surface. Due to these ground effects, a FlowRider's flowboard is contrasted to a normal surfboard by its significantly smaller size, e.g., in one example the board is 1 ft. (30 cm) wide by 39 inches (1 meter) long by ⅝ inches (1.5 cm) thick, with little or no fin extending therefrom. As an additional point of differentiation, the FlowRider style wave is stationary, as opposed to the progressive motion of an ocean wave that normally breaks obliquely from point A to point B along a beach. While riding on “waves” created by the Flow-Rider is a thrilling and exhilarating experience, the skills that are necessary to become proficient at “flow riding” are not identical to those needed to become proficient at real surfing (using real finned surf boards on ocean waves that break in a progressive fashion from point A to point B).
In the past, various attempts have been made to create wave pools, which are artificial bodies of water in which waves are created and travel across the pool and then break progressively along a shoaling beach. With a wave generator positioned at one end, the generator typically creates a wave that travels from that end of the pool to the opposite end where a sloped beach is located. One of the problems with these types of wave pools is that one needs a specific purpose built concrete pool, which is quite costly to build.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,910, Applicants disclosed a Boat Activated Wave Generator which was an attempt to pull a buoyant wave generator across a body of water such that, as it moved forward, it lifted up a sheet flow of water onto a curved wave generator hull to create curling wave shapes across the generator. The goal of the invention was to enable the wave generator to travel across or through the water, at a relatively constant level, such that, as it travelled forward, the leading edge could cut through the water at just the right depth, wherein a sheet flow of water, with a substantially constant thickness, could then be pared and lifted up onto the curved hull surface, such that a substantially consistent curling wave shape could then be created upon which surfing maneuvers can be performed. That patent disclosed various factors potentially affecting the depth of the leading edge, and therefore, the quality of the wave shapes that were created, including the buoyancy and weight of the generator itself.
While careful thought went into designing certain aspects of the previous wave generator design and various factors were believed to be significant in producing the desired results, Applicants have since discovered certain improvements that can be used to enhance the wave generator's ability to create consistently high quality surfable waves. One drawback to the previous embodiments described above, i.e., wave generators that float in a relatively deep body of water, included the difficulty of keeping the generator's leading edge at a substantially constant depth in the water, as it travelled across or through the water surface, to create smooth and stable wave shapes that are suitable for surfing. For example, without the use of a front disc or torpedo shaped stabilizing device, which that patent specified using in certain embodiments, the generator had a tendency to dive too abruptly, or plane too far up, and in either case, the depth at which the leading edge travelled across or through the water surface became difficult to control, thereby making it difficult to keep the generator in substantial equilibrium to produce consistently smooth and stable wave shapes. At the same time, using the disc or torpedo shaped stabilizing device ended up creating undue turbulence, wherein the choppiness of the water encountered by the wave generator tended to negatively impact the shape and stability of the wave shapes created thereby.
For these reasons, past attempts have failed to produce consistently smooth and stable wave shapes suitable for surfing, and lacked the means to account for the various hydrodynamic forces that are applied against the generator as it travelled through the water. Thus, an improved method and apparatus for producing wave shapes using a positively buoyant wave generator that travels across or through the water surface in a relatively deep body of water is needed, but unlike previous designs, what is needed is an improvement that helps keep the generator in substantial hydrodynamic equilibrium, and the leading edge at a substantially constant depth in the water, to produce consistently smooth and stable wave shapes on which a surfer using a standard surf board with a fin extending therefrom can ride.